Sharp Axes

[bulldogsthru&thru]

It only went 4 quarters ?

Unfortunately I saw that as a negative (ie we had to endure 4qtrs). But glass half full. I like it.

[Grantysghost]

No injuries?

[Rocket Science]

Let's try turn this around then: what positives can we take out of Sunday?

That we'll be spared Harmes' feckless mug for a week.

---

I don't think the club dare blink on a coaching reassessment before June at the earliest, suspect they'll feel obliged to give Bevo at least that much rope under the new operating system.

Scanning the fixture to that point looks prett-y ominous though ...

I think we'll have trouble with the Suns though the venue may aid us.

The Eagles? Positively fascinating. Surely not, again. A statement game and some newfound confidence before ...

The Cats? LOL. Next.

Then Esserdon? Wowee.

Next. Any Lyon-led Saints outfit gives us and our coach specifically, molto trouble.

Then some particularly uppity Dockers over there? I've got a bad feeling about this.

Then the Giants who look positively possessed at the moment and may resoundingly torch us.

Then if the kitchen isn't feeling quite hot enough by then the Swans, the reigning Premiers and the runners up in sharp succession.

Makes for fairly grim reading if we can't locate our big boy pants during that span.

[bornadog]

May as well give up then

[jeemak]

The Giants are amazing...... Wait, they beat a clearly underprepared Collingwood and then North, both at home. Their form line could be good, or it could just be OK.

But maybe Collingwood weren't underprepared and just suffered from playing two in form Sydney teams even if one had a couple of days extra break than they did in round one or one and a half or whatever the **** it was.

Essendon looked amazing against the side we kicked 15.5 against in the second half two weeks before. Geelong really showed the Saints at their fortress, both on even footing in terms of preparation. Those mighty Suns under Hardwick should travel well given how amazing their home form has been (picking up on something here?) even if one of the games was against an non-round zero starter.

We're a disgrace though, because we played a top four finisher from last year after they had a genuine dress rehearsal and ten days to prepare for us.

It really is the worst time of year if you're not winning.

[Happy Days]

Steven May got headbutted.

And Harmes got suspended. I prayed for this and it happened.

[FrediKanoute]

If we go 0-3. Bevo will not survive in my opinion. It may not happen that week, but the wheels will be well and truly in motion.

I would be surprised if the wheels hadn't already started. Its not the loss per se. Its the manner of the loss and the fact that problems identified 2 or 3 seasons ago persist.

[azabob]

[QUOTE=jeemak;890718

It really is the worst time of year if you're not winning.[/QUOTE]

Looking at the draw we should be 4 wins and 2 losses.

We should win our next four Suns, Eagles, Cats, Bombers. Saints are 50/50.

[AshMac]

Imagine games into West and not McNeil.

This. God this is so spot on. All those weeks of questioning the McNeil selection over the last 2 years whilst West couldn?t get a proper run at it.

Now West is turning into one of our most impactful players with the ball in hand and highest intensity tacklers.

[Mofra]

This. God this is so spot on. All those weeks of questioning the McNeil selection over the last 2 years whilst West couldn?t get a proper run at it.

Now West is turning into one of our most impactful players with the ball in hand and highest intensity tacklers.

The counter argument is... so we handled him correctly?

He plays "desperate" but lacked composure. I honestly see the same game in Riley Garcia. Hoping for a similar result.

[G-Mo77]

I would be surprised if the wheels hadn't already started. Its not the loss per se. Its the manner of the loss and the fact that problems identified 2 or 3 seasons ago persist.

We'll get a win this week and beat West Coast which will paper over the cracks. I think we need to be 0 - 3 and make change rather than sit mid range all season and say "Well we almost made it" again.

[G-Mo77]

The counter argument is... so we handled him correctly?

He plays "desperate" but lacked composure. I honestly see the same game in Riley Garcia. Hoping for a similar result.

IMO West would be the same if not better had we put more time into him, fine tune his game while we pump games into him. He was hardly given any rope at all early on.

[EasternWest]

May as well give up then

We need a rolleyes emoji.

It's good you were happy with the game. Heaven forbid people who aren't be allowed to express their disappointment.

[doggies ftw]

The fact of the matter is we built up this game ?fittest strongest most prepared team ever?.?, the Sanders comment, the video we posted the day before the game. We publicly blew our load about how good we were going to be?. And we failed miserably.

It?s done - the sooner Bev is out the sooner we may be able to salvage something from this shitshow. I honestly think the season will be better if we lose the next two and sack Bev then if we win a couple here and there and keep this shit show rolling on

[bulldogsthru&thru]

The Giants are amazing...... Wait, they beat a clearly underprepared Collingwood and then North, both at home. Their form line could be good, or it could just be OK.

But maybe Collingwood weren't underprepared and just suffered from playing two in form Sydney teams even if one had a couple of days extra break than they did in round one or one and a half or whatever the **** it was.

Essendon looked amazing against the side we kicked 15.5 against in the second half two weeks before. Geelong really showed the Saints at their fortress, both on even footing in terms of preparation. Those mighty Suns under Hardwick should travel well given how amazing their home form has been (picking up on something here?) even if one of the games was against an non-round zero starter.

We're a disgrace though, because we played a top four finisher from last year after they had a genuine dress rehearsal and ten days to prepare for us.

It really is the worst time of year if you're not winning.

It's the way we lost that's got everyone down. Not the loss itself. We lost the same way we always have the last few years. So people are rightly thinking not a lot has changed.

Now of course it's still too early to be writing us off. But we've all seen this before so there's not a lot of hope or trust things will turnaround. I could easily have accepted a loss of we showed something different and gave a good fight but we largely rolled over after quarter time. Melbourne had a huge legup for sure but that's not the reason we lost. Freo beat Brisbane comfortably.

As hujsh pointed out in another thread, most on here are probably hoping we reverted to bad habits when things got tough and this needs to be weeded out. It's our only hope.